Further Economics with Justice

On June 11th last Chancellor Rachel Reeves addressed the Commons with her Spending Review, a veritable cornucopia of proposals that are designed to renew Britain.  As the Chancellor said the objective was ‘to ensure that renewal is felt in people’s everyday lives, in their jobs, and on their high streets’. 

All seemingly upbeat but, as with many political statements, there may be more to this than meets the eye.  You are invited to join us for a deep dive into the Review with a view to understanding just what is on offer, who might benefit and when.  Along the way we hope to discover if, and to what extent, there are underlying principles that have informed the various proposals.

The demands on the planet to provide the raw materials to satisfy the apparently insatiable desire of the developed world for new or updated products are relatively well-known. But what happens to all that stuff when that world has finished with it? Quite a lot ends up in the undeveloped world. How come? And how does it affect those places and the people living there? This term we will consider these questions using material from a remarkable book Waste Wars by Alexander Clapp.

We will continue our work on housing, with examples from Ireland, Western Australia, and the UK. In the Autumn term we hope to include homelessness and self-build. We will also continue reviewing all references to Land, Housing, LVT, and the Island Diagram in the course material for Economics with Justice.

With Part 1 considered, we will start on Part 2 during the term. In response to the question “how is the V in LVT calculated?”, we have started exploring the 5 methods discovered so far. There will be the occasional diversion to world events or class interest.

The current state of the world hangs between War and Peace. There are movements to pray for peace, and there is fear of war spreading to the whole world, and indeed of nuclear weapons wiping out the human race. Most of us in the UK have had no experience of war and assume that the economic factors will continue to play in the same way as they have done for the last 75 years. Our objective this term will be to take a cool look at the possibilities we face in the light of the spiritual values of philosophy and form some objective views which may have an influence for peace in the long term.

Outline Programme: War and Peace